Hair stylist bests hubris

In 1978, 27-year-old Peter D'Ambrosio was an ace hai stylist, but no wizard at running his own hair salon - he tried and quickly failed. A few years later, he resurfaced - but only after educating himself and toning down the "arrogance" that comes with being young, ambitious and talented, he said, sitting in his office at his Harper's Point store in Symmes Township aptly called Peter's Place Hair Design. He learned his lessons the hard way. Now he also has four local Cutrage salons, which offer walk-in haircutting and nail services. D'Ambrosio bought Gladys Fuller's hair salon in 1978 after working there for five years as a stylist. He renamed it Peter's Place. "I was a hot shot, superstar hair dressing whiz (who bought) a business of his own. Within 16 to 18 months, things went bad," said D'Ambrosio. "I was too young, too uneducated, too good of a hairdresser, in my opinion, to handle management." In addition, most of the hair stylists at Gladys Fuller were not used to managers, the store being a small, family-type of operation. After D'Ambrioso became the leader, "I had to tell them how to do it, but it just didn't go that way." After spending more than $10,000 to buy and renovate Gladys Fuller's salon, D'Ambrosio found business wasn't doing well. The location wasn't upscale and D'Ambrosio's management and business skills were not up to the mark, he said. Luke Domet, a principal at Arthur Andersen who consults for small businesses, said often people don't adequately plan a business before starting. "They don't look ahead. They don't plan," Domet said. D'Ambrosio's case was, well, a case in point. He said he had "boundless energy" and was an "excellent" hair stylist, but didn't know much about business - a situation many starters find themselves in after they open a business, Domet said. A professional can be very skilled at his trade but lack the skills to run a small business, Domet added. D'Ambrosio said: "I wanted my own business and thought a hair salon would be a fun, lucrative opportunity." But at the start of his career, it wasn't. In addition to a lack of management and business skills, the location of his salon wasn't good, he said. Reading Road in Roselawn was becoming an "outmoded, outdated place. It was turning into an area that was on the decline." Another reason the store didn't do well was because his accountant viewed advertising as an unnecessary expense. Things were as bad as they could get, D'Ambrosio said. So in 1979, he went to a consultant at the Service Corps. of Retired Executives (SCORE), a part of the U.S. Small Business Administration. D'Ambrosio, however, wasn't ready to learn from a consultant yet, he said. The arrogance of youth was still taking its toll. Arthur Andersen's Domet said since the majority of the people who start a business don't know what to expect, visiting a consultant is "extremely important." A consultant can caution you about various pitfalls that lie ahead, which are invisible to the novice until he falls into the abyss. But D'Ambrosio felt he didn't need a consultant. With another few thousand dollars in loans and $20,000 from suppliers, D'Ambrosio, two of his staffers, his mother and his wife moved Peter's Place Hair Design to Montgomery in 1980. Before the move, D'Ambrosio said he had smartened up. He did a ZIP code analysis of where customers were coming from and found that most business came from the Montgomery area. So he moved there. In addition, words of caution from a business professor at the University of Cincinnati, which D'Ambrosio attended in the late '60s, reverberated in his mind: "Make mistakes far apart. Don't make them all at once." Although D'Ambrosio had made all his mistakes at once, he said, he set about educating himself. From '80-'81, he read every management book he could. He attended several business and management seminars. In addition to learning people skills, he also concentrated on grasping the technical side of running a business - things such as cash flow and business plans. In addition, 46-year-old D'Ambrosio said, age had taken its toll on him. "I grew up fast," he said after the defeat and "knew my mistakes." But learning from mistakes is always harder, Domet said, and always expensive. For D'Ambrosio, however, the second time did bring success. By 1984 business was better, he said, but he knew that further education would help his hair salon make more money. During the same year, D'Ambrosio identified a trend in the hair styling industry which he tapped into. More and more walk-in, no-appointment hair salons were popping up in the mid '80s, D'Ambrosio said. So he opened Cutrage, the name of his new salons, in Sharonville-based Shapely Outlet Mall in 1984. But the outlet mall lost its luster after a few years and with dwindling shoppers business declined, he said. From its shuttering, D'Ambrosio also learned about advertising. The biggest ad lesson was never to waste ad dollars when people are not in the mood to spend. "Back-to-school is the best time to (advertise)," he said. After shuttering his mall store, he opened four more, the latest opening in 1994. D'Ambrosio plans to open another this year. After D'Ambrosio tapped into the walk-in salon trend and saw his business grow, he knew he had to keep educating himself. In 1987, he went back to SCORE. "This time I was ready to listen and they helped," he said. He learned about business strategy. "Operating without a strategy is like fishing without bait," he said.